County approves deal with Bug Tussel for internet expansion

Taylor County will expand its partnership with internet service provider Green Bay-based Bug Tussel and allow the company to utilize an additional $5 million of the county’s borrowing capacity as part of expanding broadband internet access to residences in rural portions of the county.

At Tuesday’s county board session, supervisors voted 14-1 with supervisors Lynn Rosemeyer and Rollie Thums absent to approve the agreement extending the additional borrowing capacity. Supervisor Darrell Thompson voted against the measure.

This is the second time in as many months that the county board voted on the issue. Supervisor Mike Bub, who chairs the county’s broadband committee, explained the second vote was needed for bond requirements.

Mitch Olson, chief development officer of Bug Tussel, noted that bonding rules require approval of 75% of all members of the board, which put the bare minimum needed at 13 in favor.

Prior to the vote Thompson had asked questions about a name change with previous agreements being Bug Tussel and Bug Tussel 1 and now Bug Tussel 2. The concern was raised if the different company names were done to reduce the company’s liability if the project failed.

Olson replied that regardless of the names, the county has 100% guarantee on the money borrowed from Bug Tussel’s parent company, Hilbert Communications. If Bug Tussel defaults on any of the bonds, the county will have priority claim on the assets including communication towers and fiber optic networks.

One of the things that makes the deal confusing to people is the various parts of the broadband project. Bub explained that the county has a middle mile fiber network that was built with WANRack. This provided access to about 55 to 60% if the county and gave a base to build off of. Bug Tussel had previously come to the county and used some of its borrowing capacity to finance an additional ring of infrastructure including communication towers which are all expected to be live by the end of the year. Olson noted a fourth tower went live in the past week.

Bub explained that this additional level of financing will allow Bug Tussel to expand further into rural areas and connect homes to the network. The timing of it is in order to leverage local money against federal funding that will be distributed through grants awarded by the Public Service Commission. Bub said there are $1.2 billion in grant funds available in Wisconsin and that counties will be able to assign points to internet service provider partners, such as Bug Tussel, to help with the competitive grant process. In addition, as Olson explained, the more money service providers have available, the more they are able to qualify for in grant funds.

Even if grants are unsuccessful for the area, Olson noted the money his company would borrow would be used for broadband expansion to homes in Taylor County.

“Instead of five years it would take 10 years,” Bub said. Board member Scott Mildbrand questioned the length of the term. Olson explained that they are amortizing over 30 years which reduces the payments for these long-term assets. He said that with purely private funding, they would need 80 homes per mile to make the math work out for the return on investment. He noted that in places like Taylor County this density level does not exist.

Taylor County is only one, relatively small, part of the overall project. As part of the initial proposal that was approved a few years ago, there was a combined $220.9 million across multiple counties, with Taylor County at $14 million of that total. In this round, the total projected borrowing is $109 million with Taylor County accounting for only $5 million.

In other business, board members:

• Approved declaring September as Suicide Prevention month and designating August 31, as International Overdose Awareness Day.

• Received the 2023 annual report from human services director Suzanne Stanfley for her department’s activities in the past year. Human services has 41 full time positions, three part time and four contracted positions with an overall budget of $6 million. She noted that in 2023, the department came in under budget by $227,000. While she noted this is a sizable amount for most departments, it translates into 122 days of inpatient care at Winnebago Mental Health Institute and that on a regular basis residents from Taylor County are being sent there for services.